The robot has been steadily progressing through treadmill testing. It recently surpassed the world's fastest human -- six-time Olympic gold-medalist Usain Bolt. Mr. Bolt had set a high mark for humans at 27.78 miles per hour for his fastest 20 meter split. But the cheetah bot easily blew by that at 28.3 mph.

In other words, running from this killing machine when it one day hits the battlefield may not be an option.

Fortunately, the tech is a long way from being battle-ready. While field tests on natural terrain are planned for next year, researchers are still working to perfect the robot's balancing algorithms and come up with an alternative to the current power source -- an off-board hydraulic pump.

Gill Pratt, DARPA program manager, is bullish these obstacles can be overcome, stating, "Cheetahs happen to be beautiful examples of how natural engineering has created speed and agility across rough terrain. Our Cheetah bot borrows ideas from nature’s design to inform stride patterns, flexing and unflexing of parts like the back, placement of limbs and stability. What we gain through Cheetah and related research efforts are technological building blocks that create possibilities for a whole range of robots suited to future Department of Defense missions."

A DARPA press release suggests the cheetah robot could one day be used for "emergency response, humanitarian assistance, and other defense missions". It's up to our imaginations what those "other defense missions" might include, but it's likely they're not exactly pacifistic.

The good news? The robotic war-dog is still much slower than a real life cheetah, which can run at up to 61 mph.

A minor aside -- the robot bears an eerie similarity to the robotic "greyhounds" in Absolut Vodka's commercial, which features beats from the Swedish House Mafia.

How well does it corner? Fast is fine, but cornering is more vital in the real world scenarios. if I could duck around a corner and cause this thing to crash into a wall a few times, it wouldn't last very long as a mechanical killing machine. I could play with it using a single pole and run it out of energy. Multiples could be even more fun to play with. :)